Have you ever had a teacher favor one child?

Alex's home room teacher also has both boys for reading/language...which they have for 3 hours during the day.

She has been around for a long time and my 6th grader had her as well as my 4th grader. They both had her for reading and really, really disliked her. She's a yeller and her expectations are pretty much unrealistic. Lots of examples that I have witnessed, so I have seen these expectations in person, it's not just comments from my child.

Fortunately she really likes Alex. To the point where she gives him all the extra fun chores in class, lets him do pretty much anything. Now, he IS a good child, and I knew going in he would do well in her class because he likes rules and likes others to follow them. Plus he is a quick learner and enjoys being pushed intellectually. She jumped him up to the top reading group after one week (which is really where he should have been...I pushed them last year to move him up and they just thought I was "that" mom , but I knew he was capable. They did end up pushing him up a couple of groups, but he still was capable of more.). That part of this whole "favorite child" thing has been good. Plus, he's my child who cried every day last year, so this has made the morning transitions much easier.

But, Nick is also in her classroom. Nick is the child who always has a "story" and a funny comment about things. She has no patience for this kind of nonsense. Nick is a child who is incredibly eager to please if he likes you, but doesn't care if he doesn't like you. And she has made it evident she doesn't like him, so he has now already given up on reading class.

Today after school we were walking past her and both boys were walking side by side and she calls out "bye Alex, have a nice night". He waved and then Nick said "bye Mrs. S..... " and she just looked at him and nodded.

They are both of her extremes...and it kills me because she is not secretive about her dislike of Nick at all. It's making me crazy.

Any thoughts on how to handle it?????

 

Is there any way they can be separated? If I were you I would ask for the psychologist or principal to sit in and observe the class, and then see if they can put nick with another reading teacher. :hug:

 

I am not one to tell people to talk to the principal, but in this case, I think it may be warranted. Teachers shouldn't show that much favoritism to anybody, but it is definitely more apparent when the two are in the same household. But the teacher should be made aware that that behavior is damaging to one of your children, and wrong. I know in our school, there was only one teacher per subject in some of the grades, so you couldn't avoid them, unfortunately.

Good luck.

 

Thank you ladies. I actually really like our new principal (she was new last year) and feel very comfortable telling her what's going on. I think I just needed to hear someone else say it is something that should be addressed and not just waited out. :good:

 

That sounds heartbreaking. We are just beginning this journey but I was going to tell you that 'yes, we have experienced one teacher favoring the other', but not to this extreme. My boys are in preschool and I can tell there is more of a connection with one teacher and one of my boys; by just the way she talks about him, the change in voice and body language, etc...but it's pretty subtle to my other son.
I agree with others, it's worth an outside perspective.

What gets me through these moments is telling myself there are going to be teachers who won't cherish my kids as much as me and I can use it as a learning opportunity because it will happen after school too. But it sucks!